JEDDAH, 27 November 2007 — Prince Turki Al-Faisal, chairman of the board of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, will be a keynote speaker at the fourth annual Global Asset Allocation conference to be held in Bahrain on Thursday. He will address “The World in 2020” topic.
Abdulmohsin Ai Omran, CEO of The Family Office Co., said in a statement that the company is hosting its fourth annual conference to address major family businesses in the Gulf region with experts from top financial institutions to exchange ideas about asset allocation.
The conference will also provide investors with some insight into the economic and investment trends in the coming year from experts.
Speakers like Thomas Frey, senior futurist and executive director, DaVinci Institute, Inc.; Thomas Stolper. senior economist, Global Markets, Currencies, Goldman Sachs; and Richard Sharp, advisory director, will zero in on “The City of the Future” in which Frey said will be designed around eight dimensions of human connectedness, connecting great people with great ideas. Cities that focus on these eight dimensions will find that the resulting alignment of human capital will make community problem solving far easier.”
The topic on “Global Market Outlook” will be presented by Paul Marson, managing director and chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, Europe, Middle East & Asia. An insight on the “Eastern European Property Market” will be addressed by Neil Crowder, a managing partner of Chayton Capital LLP.
“Opportunities from the Property Cycle in Asia “ topic will be discussed by Franklin Lamm, managing director UBS Global Asset Management. Hall, chairman and CEO of Clinton Group, will focus on “The Importance of Sharpe Ratios and Structuring a Product with Different Risk Levels.”
Meanwhile, Standard and Poor’s has assigned its AA rating to the BankMuscat’s Oryx Fund and A (high quality) rating to the bank’s Muscat Fund. The funds, managed by the bank’s asset-management unit, are among the foremost mutual funds in the Sultanate of Oman. Oryx Fund eeks to provide long-term capital-appreciation opportunities to investors through maintaining a diversified portfolio in stocks listed on GCC stock markets.
S&P said: “The (investment) approach is very methodical and structured, emphasizing a bottom-up selection of companies with low peg ratios and good management. A standard template is used to value each company, and the team has developed an in-house database with models on each company followed. We are impressed by this experienced team and its clear and robust investment process. The fund consequently achieves an S&P AA rating.”
The Oryx Fund showed returns of 32 percent on its net asset value (NAV) since the beginning of the year, thereby outperforming most of the GCC market indices.
Commenting on Muscat Fund, the country’s leading open-ended Oman-focused fund, S&P said: “Performance has been good and the fund outpaced its benchmark in each calendar year since 2003 through sound stock selection. The team is among the most experienced in the region and has created a disciplined and effective approach which has been adapted to this less flexible mandate. The fund achieves an agency rating.”
The NAV of the Muscat Fund appreciated by 43 percent since the beginning of the year. The fund offers investors easy access to a diversified basket of securities listed on the Muscat Securities Market. Both funds offer daily liquidity and also offer Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), a unique plan wherein investors can put in a modest sum every month without having to worry about timing the market.
